The Holocaust, the Poles, and World War II Memory

A hurricane of recrimination has erupted between Poland and Israel. It all started because the Poles are sick and tired of hearing the scurrilous slander of “Polish concentration camps.” That’s Holocaust revisionism plain and simple. The camps were German and Nazi. However, a bumbling Polish attempt to fix the problem via regulation blew up in Warsaw’s face.
What began as a historians’ quarrel gone public has spun out of control into a diplomatic row between Israel and Poland. Jerusalem enjoys the support of world public opinion, Ukraine, and, most importantly, the United States of America. Warsaw initially suffered isolation but now it has unexpectedly found new champions: Germany and Russia. This has a dangerous potential for the crisis to metastasize into the world of military geopolitics, thus endangering the Western system of alliances, NATO in particular.
Washington concurs with Israel’s fears that Poland wants to thwart academic freedom...(Read Full Article)